sound absent in Flash pin

[faralos]

so I go to play it (I've had no problems prior to this) and no background sound! the sound effects are there, though but no background sound. I re-d/load the Rom and try again, still no background sound! what gives? all my other pins work just fine, what could be causing this? Flash is my all-time fave, it was my first d/load and the main reason that I am here in the first place! I always wanted a flash machine and so many weeksago I looked forit and discovered VP! and then it up and goes 'Charlie Chaplin' on me (This means "no sound" for those of you who need help tying your own shoelaces!):D I tried even redownloading the entire pin but still nothing. Snif...Snifcould it be something within VP program? has anyone else encountered this?

 

[m4paws]

If I recall correctly, you can press F6 for an options menu and either enable or disable the background sound.

 

[Jlr]

You can also press F1 to see if "Use Sound" is checked.

 

[faralos]

usesound isindeed checked I also tried F6 still no background sound. I tried again d/loading the roms but it still won't play the background sounds! I guess it's something within VP all my other pins work! just not flash andI can't find the pin to red/load it again! oh well, on to other things...

 

[Jlr]

usesound isindeed checked I also tried F6 still no background sound. I tried again d/loading the roms but it still won't play the background sounds! I guess it's something within VP all my other pins work! just not flash andI can't find the pin to red/load it again! oh well, on to other things...

What version of Flash do you have? is it "Flash (Williams 1979) 2.1" ?

 

[faralos]

yes that's the one 1979 2.1

 

[Jlr]

yes that's the one 1979 2.1

I do not know if there is another version so that is why i asked.

If pressing F6 then a menu appears,there are two options about the sound,"Dip 1" and "Synth Sound",do you have "Synth Sound" checked? you might also try to check "Dip 1" to see if it fixes your issue but if still no luck then uncheck this option as it was by default.

 

[m4paws]

Sorry, it's not in the DIP menu like I thought, but I was able to get it working. I found this following information on the Rec.Games.Pinball newsgroup... This is actually regarding the actual machine, but it works for the VPM version as well.

Keys for VPM version:
7 = AUTO-UP MANUAL-DOWN
8 = ADVANCE

In the game adjustments menu, function 31 is for the sound option.
00 = background sound OFF (factory)
01 = Background sound ON.

To get to the game adjustment do the following:
1. In game over mode, and the coin door open,
2. Set the AUTO-UP MANUAL-DOWN to AUTO-UP,
3. Press the advance button once, 04 will appear in the credit window.
4. Press the advance button 31 more times and the number in the ball
in play window will scroll to "31" (function 31)
5. In the player one window the current value for the setting will be
shown.
6. Press the credit button once to change the player one value to 01
(background sound on).
7. Turn the machine off to "save" the setting.
8. Turn the machine on and background sound should be on

Depending on which ROM you have, this may help as well. For me it was setting 31 as described above which means the section below was not needed, though someone else may find it of use.

The setting depends on which ROM's you have installed in the CPU board.
If they are the newer green ROM's it's setting #31 set to 01 = on
IF their the older ROM's then it's setting #33 set to 01 = on.

Since this is all a bit tricky to translate to VP, exactly the keys that worked for me were:

8 8 7 8 8 8 8 (go slowly, waiting a second or two between each)

That should get you to 04 in the credit window and 00 in the ball in play window. Now, press 8 until the ball in play advances to 31 (or 33, see notes above). You should see 00 in the player 1 display. Press 1 (credit button) to advance that display to 01. Press F3 to reset VPM, which saves the change.

 

[faralos]

ok that worked! but why would it just conk out like that? and do I have to ever do it again? I've had it for about 2 weeks with no problems, what would make it go wonky like that? will my other pins 'give up the ghost' also? is it a VP thing?
oh and thanks for that! how did you ever figure that one out?

 

[m4paws]

It's the default of the machine not to play the background sound, so it has to be manually turned on. So, if you ever delete your NVRAM for that table, it will reset it back to the factory default.

How did I figure out which part? The instructions for how to make the real machine make the background sound I found just by Googling something like "Flash pinball background sound". How to get it to work in VPM was just a bit of trial and error, because those instructions are not 100% correct as far as I can tell. The keys 7 and 8 are listed in the table - press F2 to see them.

 

[faralos]

ok but it was working for the last 2 months just fine! why would it all of a sudden turn itself off? I didn't delete anything, it just went silent on me! it sure is weird...didn't even occur to me to google it, I put too much faith in this site for answers (laziness doesn't help at all... lol) thanks again...

 

[m4paws]

No problem, glad I could help.

More mysterious for me though is how you had it working in the first place. As far as I can find, it's off by default and the only way to get it turned on is with that ridiculous sequence. I'm sure you'd have remembered doing that before...

At least one VPM update in the past has caused some ROMs to return to factory defaults, so it's possible that's how you lost the setting.

 

[faralos]

yeah itworked just fine from the moment I had first installed it, andyes, i surely would have remembered that bit of stuff to get the sound on! thanks though...

 

[faralos]

well it seems every time I want to play flash, I must inputall those numbers! It doesn't save the settings at all! I just tried it again today and had to log onto here and look up the directions for resetting the darn sound again! sure enuf, I quit it and restarted it and no sound! what a pain. I guess it's just a corrupt file somehow. so I quit on it.

 

[destruk]

Well, if your NVRam file is read only, or the nvram directory is read only, that'd be why. Also if you're on Windows XP then it has a tendency to actively prevent you from updating files like this with the system restore points and cached shadow copies of crap all over. Perhaps you should search your hard drive for all instances of flash_l1.nv and delete them - then make sure your have permissions for the nvram folder for vpinmame set to everybody/total control/read/write/execute/etc - and do it again.

If it doesn't save the setting after doing that, then I'll be sure to check into the issue here.

 

[m4paws]

If it doesn't save the setting after doing that, then I'll be sure to check into the issue here.

Saves fine here, so I doubt you'll find any code issues.

 

[Hierophant]

Just curious, is the background sound being discussed here the constant drone sound that gradually raises in pitch the longer the ball is kept in play?

I also have a problem with Flash saving my preferences but it's not with the background sound (which I think might be OK for me depending on the answer to the above), it's the score display. Whenever I load the table the display is always way off to the right of screen and only half visible, so I move it over to the fairly empty left backdrop area. This is the only table I've come across so far where my preffered display location is never saved. It's only a tad annoying compared to faralos' problem, but still...

 

[m4paws]

Just curious, is the background sound being discussed here the constant drone sound that gradually raises in pitch the longer the ball is kept in play?

Yes, that's the one.

I also have a problem with Flash saving my preferences but it's not with the background sound (which I think might be OK for me depending on the answer to the above), it's the score display. Whenever I load the table the display is always way off to the right of screen and only half visible, so I move it over to the fairly empty left backdrop area. This is the only table I've come across so far where my preffered display location is never saved. It's only a tad annoying compared to faralos' problem, but still...

Unrelated problem. The author can choose to script where the display goes (as was done in this case), or to hide it entirely. The object here was to move the display offscreen, because in earlier VPM versions the hide option didn't work well with some video cards. Screens are higher resolution now than when this game was released, so the chosen dimensions are no longer off screen.

You have a few choices for a fix. To get it to stop relocating the display each time it runs, find and comment out the following line (add an apostrophe before it):

		.SetDisplayPosition 1600, 100, GetPlayerHWnd	' Mame Display Off Screen

You could also crank up that 1600 number to something that is beyond your screen's dimensions.

Optionally you can also add a line to hide the display instead, since this table doesn't need it the author coded the display lights right into the backglass. To hide it, add this line right after the one you just commented out:

		.Hidden = true

 

[Hierophant]

Thanks m4paws for your detailed information. Hopefully you guys can still get faralos sorted out. Hopefully? I mean of course you can.

 

[Phoenixx]

        .Hidden = true

Wasnt it actually controller.hidden=true ?

 

[m4paws]

        .Hidden = true

Wasnt it actually controller.hidden=true ?

Yes, but you're looking at it out of context. In Flash's script, it was encased within a "With Controller" statement, so it's not needed. Overall you're right of course.

Original section of Flash 2.1 code:

	With Controller
		.GameName = "flash_l1"
		.SplashInfoLine = cCredits
		.HandleKeyboard = False
		.ShowTitle = False
		.ShowDMDOnly = True
		.ShowTitle = False
		.ShowFrame = False
		.SetDisplayPosition 1600, 100, GetPlayerHWnd	' Mame Display Off Screen
	'	.SetDisplayPosition 100, 100, GetPlayerHWnd	' Mame Display Visible
		On Error Resume Next
			.Run
			If Err Then MsgBox Err.Description
		On Error Goto 0
	End With

 

[faralos]

yes it was the increasing background drone pitch sound that constantly blanks out! I've done what you said with that folder and it seems to be ok for now. At least it worked for me today with no problems. But why would it do this? I've been playing it for almost 2 months with no problems when all of a sudden it (the backgorund noise) stopped working. it just seems odd that it wouldn't save and now all of a sudden it works again! is it just my wonky computer? I DID have a hard drive crash about 1 month ago. Could that have reset it or caused it's malfunction?

 

[destruk]

I have no idea. I'm happy you got it fixed though.

 

[Phoenixx]

Yes, but you're looking at it out of context. In Flash's script, it was encased within a "With Controller" statement, so it's not needed.

Ah,...i see.

Thanks for clarifying,...